yuva bharati february 2013

7/28/2019 Yuva bharati February 2013

1/39

V.Senthil Kumar

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Editorial 03

Matas Message 05

The Task Ahead 06

Vivekananda the Peripatetic Orator andThe Conqueror of America 12

Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda 23-30

Oh! The youth of IndiaIndia is calling Swamiji 35

Vivekananda's Material Wisdom 38

Sankara and Siddhartha in Vivekananda 45

Yuva bharati - 1 - February 2013


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InvocationnvocationInvocation

Anyakshetre kritam paapam punyakshetre vinashyati

Punyakshetre kritam paapam Praayagatheerthanayake vinashyati

- Rig Veda

Bad karmas committed elsewhere can be washed off in pilgrim centeres; but Prayag theerth

can wash off even bad karmas committed in pilgrim centers.



3/39

Editorial

This month marks the dawn of the year long celebrations of the

th150 anniversary of the advent of Swami Vivekananda.

Swami Vivekananda represents a new phase in the social

history of Hindustan and a new awakening the consciousness of the

planet. As the nineteenth century was drawing to a close Swamiji

found him amidst a whirlpool of changes spanning all humanity.

While more than half of the human race was subjugated by

colonialism and plagued by internal stagnation, a considerable

minority of humanity the West- was progressing fast in science and technology, culture and inbuilding socio-political institutions. New discoveries in science were shaking the basis of the old

religious structures of the West. But the same old structures of the West found new pastures for

their predatory pursuits in the subjugated humanities of the colonized worlds. Native spiritual

traditions under social stagnation and colonialism became internal tyrannies, mere decadent

forms bereft of their soul-strength. It was at this juncture that Swami Vivekananda appeared on

the world scene. His message of universal brotherhood based on Vedantic humanism, showing

the immense possibilities of synthesis of science and religion, democracy and tradition and

different cultures from all the directions of the globe. Even as the leading socio-political

philosophers of the West were hotly debating the supremacy of individual or that of the State,Swami Vivekananda harmonized both in a characteristically Vedantic way. In his social vision,

the importance of freedom and the need for social equality have to organically moderate each

other. He spoke of liberation of the downtrodden through Vedanta. This was a revolutionary way

of ushering Vedanta into the socio-political realm.

The old order panicked. The predatory belief systems marked this penniless youth their prime

enemy. And they slandered him. In his authoritative two-volume biography on Swami

Vivekananda Prof.K.N.Dhar explains how various factions came together to slander Swamiji:

at the time when the orthodox agitation against Swami Vivekananda was going

on, his old friends, the Christian missionaries, perhaps also Pratap Chandra

Majumdar, and Dr.Barrows also joined in the fray. They had a common object, viz., to

bring down the Swami in public estimation, so as to ruin his work, though their lines

of attack differed. There was something funny in Christian missionaries and

Brahmo reformers who did not believe in caste attempting to belittle one for non-

orthodoxy (A Comprehensive Biography, Vol-2, p.940)

Swami Vivekananda 150:

The caravan moves on



4/39

All these happened soon after Swami Vivekananda started his active mission in India after his

success in the World Parliament of Religions. More than a century later, today as a nation fondlythlooks forward to celebrate Swami Vivekananda's 150 birth anniversary.

In a nation today bitterly divided by identity politics and ideological vested interests, the figure

of Swami Vivekananda towers above all petty divisions, uniting India emotionally, cerebrallyand spiritually for the world mission She has. And the forces of divisiveness panic at the prospect

of an India united and strong, progressive and spiritual. So we find another malicious campaign

against Swami Vivekananda unleashed by a section of English media. Indo-phobic, anti-Hindu

mania of a section of English media, owned by Marxist media barons, penned by limousine

liberals and funded mostly by Western academic institutions, have started a scathing attack on

Swami Vivekananda, showing how still Swami Vivekananda remains the enemy numero uno of

these anti-Indian forces.

Yet Swami Vivekananda continues to inspire and guide the nation. His grand vision of unitypropelled Tesla; fructified in Einstein and proceeds in E.C.George Sudarshan. His idea of Karma

Yoga was imbibed by Gandhiji in his interpretation of Gita. His vision of Vedantic human

equality and projection of Buddhist compassion manifested itself in the actions of Dr.Ambedkar.

His holistic vision of humanity inspired and found fulfillment in the writings of Sri Aurobindo

whose evolutionary vision of humanity in transition into Overmind has become a map for the

future of humanity. His vision of national uniqueness and fullness of human organism found a

comprehensive ideological expression in Deendayal Upadyaya's Integral humanism. And he

will continue to inspire many a million to come each contributing his or her own song to the

beauty of human civilization and glory of Mother India.

Yes. The grand Indic caravan of peace and benediction will move on through the vastness of time

and royal routes of history, creating paths where none existed before and unfolding possibilities

for the expression of the highest where none dreamt it as plausible, ignoring the howls of the

lesser minds with the rich compassion they deserve.

Aravindan Neelakandan

YB-ET



5/39

When a magazine, supposedly

objective and mainstream, does a

controversial story on a popular

personality, a national icon, basic ethics

demands that it presents both views for and

against that personality. The same is not true of

a campaign of calumny against a person

indulged in with malicious intent. The latter is

called hate propaganda. The cover story

conclusively titled 'Hindu Supremacist' run by

'Outlook' magazine on Swami Vivekananda,brought out exactly at the time when the nation

thstarted celebrating his 150 birth anniversary is

a perfect instance of such hate propaganda.

The magazine published an excerpt from a

book on Swami Vivekananda by a left -

propagandist and visceral Hindu hater,

Jyotirmaya Sharma, masquerading as an

objective scholar. Sharma's hatchet job on

Swami Vivekananda started much earlier.

Reviewing his 2007 book on Guruji Golwalkar

which was given a paranoid title 'Terrifying

Vision' (Penguin Viking), Christopher Jaffrelot

another visceral Hindu baiter from France

affirmed Sharma's assessment of Vivekananda

thus:

V i v e k a n a n d a ' s r e sp e c t f o r

pluralism was largely a faade

be cau se h is to le ran ce was

presented in terms of some

universalisation of the self:

Hinduism is so tolerant that it

can accept every religion in itsfold. Hence the very abstract

definition of religion promoted

by Vivekananda who had not

selected the Vedanta just by

chance: All other religions of the

world are inc luded in the

nameless, limitless, eternal Vedic

r e l i g i o n . V i v e k a n a n d a ,

therefore, added to the Hindutva

ideology a benign face, which

presents Hinduism as an all-

encompassing and, therefore,

hegemonic creed.

In the excerpt published by Outlook, Sharma

twists the words and their meanings to suit his

own design of presenting Swami Vivekananda

as an intolerant exclusivist wearing the garb of

Aravindan Neelakandan

Swami Vivekananda-a

Hindu Supremacist?

Rebuttal to the recent Calumny against Swami Vivekananda



6/39

an outwardly tolerance. Let us take a specific

example of such a gross misinterpretation:

When the argument for a single

universal faith had to be made

s t r e n u o u s l y , V i v e k a n a n d a

abandons even the We must eachhave our own individual religion

rhetoric with alacrity: There

never was my religion or yours,

my national religion or your

national religion; there never

existed many religions, there is

only the one. One Infinite Religion

existed all through eternity and

will ever exist, and this Religion is

expressing itself in various

countries, in various ways.

What, then, about the argument

that promised to accommodate

even twenty million or more sects

i n t h e w o r l d , e v e n i f t h i s

acceptance of plurality was only

based on the acknowledgement of

a multitude of external forms of

religion? The above quote endswith the following sentence:

Therefore we must respect all

religions and we must try to

accept them all as far as we can.

The respect for other religions

was, therefore, conditional. It

depended on phrases like so far

as the externals of it go and as

far as we can.

It baffles one how this 'rhetoric' when read

with 'alacrity' negates Swami Vivekananda's

'the argument that promised to accommodate

even twenty million or more sects in the

world'? To negate the twenty million sects,

which actually Swami Vivekananda identifies

with individual and national religions, the one

'Religion' which he proposes should be based

on some exclusivist dogmas. But if one reads

what Swami Vivekananda states about the

One Religion also has the adjective 'Infinite'

which Sharma ignores so that he can present

that as another sectarian religion what Swami

Vivekananda calls the 'One Infinite Religion'.

Far from the way Sharma presents the idea of a

universal religion by Swami Vivekananda was

radically different and inclusive to the

maximum. In his lecture titled 'The Ideal of a

Universal Religion' Swami Vivekananda

leaves no room for any ambiguity much less

the 'supremacist' tendencies invented by

Sharma:

What then do I mean by the ideal

of a universal religion? I do not

m e a n a n y o n e u n i v e r s a l

philosophy, or any one universal

mythology, or any one universal

ritual held alike by all; for I know

that this world must go on

working, wheel within wheel,

this intricate mass of machinery,

most complex, most wonderful.

What can we do then? We canmake it run smoothly, we can

lessen the friction, we can grease

the wheels, as it were. How? By

recognising the natural necessity

of variation. Just as we have

recognised unity by our very

nature, so we must also recognise

variation. We must learn that

truth may be expressed in a

hundred thousand ways, and that

each of these ways is true as far as1it goes.

According to Sharma the exclusivist of

Vivekananda manifests through the usage of

words such as 'phases' which he uses to

demote other religions as mere stages towards

his own:



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Vivekananda learnt from his

Master that all religions in the

world were phases of one eternal

religion. Notice the dexterity with

which the word 'phases' has been

added and introduced. What was

the parity and equality of all faiths

becomes phases of one eternal

r e l i g i o n i n t h e h a n d s o f

Vivekananda.

But what Swami Vivekananda means by

phases are not like stepping stones towards yet

another sectarian religion. In his 1900 lecture

Swami Vivekananda says:

Each religion, as it were, takes up

one part of the great universal

truth, and spends its whole force

in embodying and typifying that

part of the great truth. It is,

therefore, addition; not exclusion.

That is the idea. System after

s y s t e m a r i s e s , e a c h o n e

embodying a great idea, and

ideals must be added to ideals.

And this is the march of humanity. Our watchword, then, will be

acceptance, and not exclusion.

Not only toleration, for so-called

toleration is often blasphemy, and

I do not believe in it. I believe in

a c c e p t a n c e . W h y sh o u l d I

tolerate? Toleration means that I

think that you are wrong and I am

just allowing you to live. Is it not a

blasphemy to think that you and I

are allowing others to live? I

accept all religions that were in the

past, and worship with them all; I

worship God with every one of

them, in whatever form they

worship Him. I shall go to the

mosque of the Mohammedan; I

shall enter the Christian's church

and kneel before the crucifix; I

shall enter the Buddhist temple,

where I shall take refuge in

Buddha and in his Law. I shall go

into the forest and sit down in

meditation with the Hindu, who

is trying to see the Light which2enlightens the heart of every one.

The twisting of meanings indulged in by

Jyotirmaya Sharma, falls flat at every point

exposing Sharma as a malicious campaigner

against Hinduism and examining his claims

when done through the original works of

Swami Vivekananda only proves that

Vivekananda's ideas of Universal Religion, an

inclusive one that recognizes the diversity of

religious experiences and their deeper

unifying nature, are becoming more and more

relevant in the modern world we live today.

Swami Vivekananda a Caste Votary?

'Yes' says Sharma. He quotes the following

passage from a letter written by SwamirdVivekananda on 3 January 1895:

Now, take the case of caste in

Sanskrit, Jti, i.e. species. Now,

this is the first idea of creation.

Variation (Vichitrat), that is to

say Jati, means creation. "I am

One, I become many" (various

Vedas). Unity is before creation,

diversity is creation. Now if this

diversity stops, creation will be

destroyed. So long as any species

is vigorous and active, it must

throw out varieties. When it

ceases or i s s topped f rom

breeding varieties, it dies. Now

the original idea of Jati was this

freedom of the individual to

express his nature, his Prakriti, hisYuva bharati - 7 - February 2013


8/39

Jati, his caste; and so it remained

for thousands of years. Not even

in the latest books is inter-dining

prohibited; nor in any of the older

b o o k s i s i n t e r - m a r r i a g e

forbidden. Then what was the

cause of India's downfall? the

giving up of this idea of caste.

He then quotes from the same letter the

following:

The present caste is not the real

Jat i , but a hindrance to its

progress. It really has prevented

the free action of Jati, i.e., caste or

var ia t ion . Any crysta l l i sed

custom or privilege or hereditary

class in any shape really prevents

caste (Jati) from having its full

sway, and whenever any nation

ceases to produce this immense

variety, it must die. Therefore

what I have to tell you, my

countrymen, is this: That India fell

because you prevented and

abolished caste. Every frozenaristocracy or privileged class is a

blow to caste and is notcaste.

Let Jati have its sway; break down

every barrier in the way of caste

and we shall rise.

And from these now Sharma draws his

conclusions:

I n p r a c t i c a l t e r m s , c a s t e

d e s i g n a t e d i n d i v i d u a l s t operform certain actions according

to their natures, their prakriti. As

long as they continued to perform

those without locating their

actions or varna-prescribed

vocation in custom, privilege or

h e r e d i t y , c a s t e f u n c t i o n e d

smoothly. So, the cobbler, the

peasant and the sweeper, despite

an education, will continue to do

their jobs and do them even better

as long as they got the sympathy

of the upper castes. This, in sum,

is Vivekananda's argument till

now.

The question that is to be asked is when Swami

Vivekananda differentiated the present day

concept of caste with what he considered was

the ancient original concept of Jati was he

suggesting that 'the cobbler, the peasant and

the sweeper, despite an education, will

continue to do their jobs'? The answer can be

seen already in the words of Swami

Vivekananda which Sharma quoted and

emphatically in the words from the same

passage he left out both rejecting his thesis

that Swami Vivekananda supported the birth-

based continuation of caste occupations. This

is what Sharma left out which presents the

entire case in a very different light:

Therefore what I have to tell you,

my countrymen, is this, that India

fell because you prevented andabolished caste. Every frozen

aristocracy or privileged class is

a blow to caste and is not-caste.

Let Jati have its sway; break down

every barrier in the way of caste,

and we shall rise. Now look at

Europe. When it succeeded in

giving free scope to caste and

took away most of the barriers

t h a t s t o o d i n t h e w a y o f

individuals, each developing his

caste Europe rose. In America,

there is the best scope for caste

(real Jati) to develop, and so the

people are great. Every Hindu

knows that astrologers try to fix

the caste of every boy or girl as



9/39

soon as he or she is born. That is

t h e r e a l c a s t e t h e

individuality, and Jyotisha

(astrology) recognises that. And

we can only rise by giving it full

sway again. This variety does not

mean inequality, nor any special3privilege. (Emphasis added)

So in the chopped off passage what Swami

Vivekananda means by caste is very clear the

individuality. Sharma thus provides an

excellent case of 'suppressio veri and suggestio

falsi' often indulged in by limousine liberals

who inhabit a section of Indo-phobic English

media in India. And the reader should be

cautioned against Swami Vivekananda's

reference to astrology. He says that the

astrology recognizes the fact that a child's caste

is his or her individuality. While endorsing this

idea of recognition of an individual's

individuality, Swami Vivekananda has4rejected astrology as 'sign of a weak mind'.

What is important here is that it was the

democratic social system of United States of

America which Swami Vivekananda shows asthe example for the real manifestation of the

ancient idea of 'Jati' which is complete

rejection of birth-based imposition of any

profession considered exalted or defiled on

any individual by customs or traditions. Even

in the very quote which Sharma shows as proof

for Vivekananda's adherence to birth-based

caste system, Vivekananda states that both

inter-dining and inter-marriage should not be

proscribed and no privilege be given to any

section of the society.

In other words Swami Vivekananda stood for

complete annihilation of caste system. He

simply wanted Jati to become a psychological

phenomenon for the individual to decide his

re la t ion to the soc ie ty based on his

individuality and the society should be

democratic enough to allow full manifestation

of this individual variation in the society to

contribute to the welfare of the society and the

individual.

In August 1889 in a letter to Pramada Das

Mitra an orthodox Hindu from Varanasi,Swami Viveakannda questioned the stand of

Sankara himself on caste and wrote:

The doctrine of caste in the

Purusha-Sukta of the Vedas does

not make it hereditary--so what

are those instances in the Vedas

where caste has been made a

m a t t e r o f h e r e d i t a r y

transmission? The (Sankara)

Acharya could not adduce any

proof from the Vedas to the effect

that the Shudra should not study

the Vedas. He only quotes Tai.

Samhita, (VII.i.l.6) to maintain

that when he is not entitled to

perform Yajnas, he has neither

any right to study the Upanishads

and the l ike. But the same

Acharya contends with referenceto Vedanta-Sutras, (I.i.l) that the

word Aw here does not mean

"subsequent to the study of the

Vedas", because it is contrary to

proof that the study of the

Upanishad is not permissible

without the previous study of the

Vedic Mantras and Brahmanas

and because there is no intrinsic

sequence between the Vedic

Karma-kanda and Vedic Jnana-

kanda. It is evident, therefore, that

one may attain to the knowledge

of Brahman without having

studied the ceremonial parts of

the Vedas. So if there is no

sequence between the sacrificial



10/39

practices and Jnana, why does the

Acharya contradict his own

statement when it is a case of the

Shudras, by inserting the clause

"by force of the same logic"? Why

should the Shudra not study the5

Upanishad? (Emphasis added)

In May 1897 Swami again wrote to Mitra,

and now he concluded:

The Smrithis and Puranas are

productions of men of limited

intell igence and are full of

fallacies, errors, the feelings of

class and malice the conviction

is daily gaining on my mind that

the idea of caste is the greatest

dividing factor and the root of

Maya; all caste either on the

principle of birth or of merit is

bondage. Some friends advise,

"True, lay all that at heart, but

outside, in the world of relative

experience, distinctions like caste

must needs be maintained." . . .

The idea of oneness at heart (witha craven impotence of effort, that

is to say), and outside, the hell-

dance of demons--oppression and

persecution I am a Shudra, a

Mlechha, so I have nothing to do

with all that botheration. To me

what would Mlechha's food

matter or Pariah's? It is in the

books written by priests that

madnesses like that of caste are to

be found, and not in books6revealed from God.

Such was the idea of Swami Vivekananda

regarding caste: a scheme of harmonizing the

individuality of the individual with the

welfare of society based initially on merit and

later corrupted to hereditary and today

existing purely as the greatest obstacle to the

progress and unity of Indian society and

spiritual emancipation of the individual. As a

system as a social institution as it exists today

and as it existed in the day of Swami

Vivekananda, he declared clearly where he

stands with relation to it in no unclear terms:

The caste system is opposed to the religion of7Vedanta.

Aryan and Brahmin in Swami Vivekananda

Now Sharma takes up the Aryan question:

The common rubric under which

he attempts to club all the races

and tribes was found in the term

'Arya'. Even the distinctionbetween Aryan and Dravidian

was casually brushed aside as

merely a philological one and not

of race and blood. Once language

and race were unified, the

asymmetry between cultures had

to be rectified: Just as Sanskrit

has been the linguistic solution, so

the Arya the racial solution. So the

Brahmanhood is the solution of

the varying degrees of progress

and culture as well as that of all

social and political problems.

Once the supremacy and the

primacy of the Aryan race were

established, he could now readily

pronounce Brahminhood as the

great ideal of India. It was true

t h a t t h e d e g r a d a t i o n o f B r a h m i n h o o d a n d

Kshatriyahood was prophesied in

the Puranas; in the Kaliyuga, they

claimed, there would only be non-

Brahmins. Vivekananda regrets

t h a t t h i s w a s b e c o m i n g

increasingly true, though a few

Brahmins remained, and did so



11/39

only in India. Any vision of

bringing about ord er to the

diversity of races and languages,

then, can only be brought about

by a superior culture. The Aryans,

Vivekananda asserts, provided

such a culture and this culture

expressed itself through the caste

system: It put, theoretically at

least, the whole of India under the

guidancenot of wealth, nor of

t h e s w o r d b u t o f

intellectintellect chastened and

controlled by spirituality. The

leading caste in India is the

highest Aryansthe Brahmans.

Swami Vivekananda did not have the

advantage of data from archaeology and

genetics to completely and decisively reject the

notion of race and invasion. Yet he was totally

uncomfortable with the idea and was quite

sure that humanity was an admixture of many

races and what goes by the name Aryan itself

was not a 'pure' race but an admixture of two8

grand linguistic groups. He dismisses both thebiological basis of racial categories and birth

based superiority of any caste. If the 'the so-

called craniological differentiation' finds 'no9solid ground to work upon' in India, then the

'super-arrogated excellence of birth of any10caste in India' is equally 'a pure myth'. Swami

Vivekananda also condemned those who

wanted to cut themselves off from the masses

of India on the basis of European race theories.

In Sharma's presentation, the Brahmins, an

endangered minority of the Aryans are to bring

'order to the diversity of races and languages'.

He presents as if Swami Vivekananda meant

the 'Brahmins' to the Master select of a Master

race. However what Swami Vivekananda

meant was entirely different. After rejecting

the idea of blood based division existing in

India, Swami Vivekananda considers the proof

of Brahminhood on anyone claiming to be

B r a h m i n , a s d e m o c r a t i z a t i o n o f t h e

Brahminhood:

Then anyone who claims to be a

B r a h m i n s h o u l d p r o v e h i spretensions, first by manifesting

that spirituality, and next by

raising others to the same status.

On the face of this, it seems that

most of them are only nursing a

false pride of birth; and any

schemer, native or foreign, who

can pander to this vanity and

inherent laziness by fulsome

sophistry, appears to satisfy most.

Beware, Brahmins, this is the sign

of death! Arise and show your

manhood, your Brahminhood, by

raising the non-Brahmins around

you-not in the spirit of a master -

not with the rotten canker of

e g o t i s m c r a w l i n g w i t h

superstitions and the charlatanry

of East and West-but in the spirit ofa servant. For verily he who knows

11how to serve knows how to rule.

What Swami Vivekananda presents then is a

far-cry from a Master select few of a Master race

but a democratization of a spiritual idea.

Sharma then makes even a wilder claim:

Was it then possible for a Shudra to

acquire learning and become a

Brahmin? Vivekananda's answeris emphatically in the negative: If

you want to rise to a higher caste in

India, you have to elevate all your

caste first, and then there is

nothing in your onward path to

hold you back. The lower castes

had to aspire, en masse, to rise to

the level of a higher caste. It did not



12/39

really matter whether caste was

seen as an ideal or perceived as a

social institution in operation. For

Vivekananda, the rules to aspire

for a higher status were already

put in place by the Aryan and

B r a h m i n s u p e r i o r c u l t u r e

inaugurated in ancient India.

What Swami Vivekananda meant, was

something altogether different and radical.

Very definitely an individual Shudra or Dalit

making himself to the level of Brahmin or

Kshatriya had happened. Swami Vivekananda

was aware of that. But that had not benefitted

t h e u p l i f t m e n t o f t h e d o w n t r o d d e n

community itself. Swami Vivekananda

observed:

By this very qualitative caste

system which obtained in India in

ancient days, the Shudra class was

kept down, bound hand and foot.

In the first place, scarcely any

opportunity was given to the

Shudra for the accumulation of

wealth or the earning of properknowledge and education; to add

to this disadvantage, if ever a man

of extraordinary parts and genius

were born of the Shudra class, the

influential higher sections of the

society forthwith showered titular

honours on him and lifted him up

to their own circle. His wealth and

the power of his wisdom were

employed for the benefit of an

alien caste and his own caste-

people reaped no benefits of his

attainments; and not only so, the

good-for-nothing people, the

scum and refuse of the higher

castes, were cast off and thrown

into the Shudra class to swell their

number. Vasishtha, Nrada,

Satyakma Jbla, Vysa, Kripa,

Drona, Karna, and others of

questionable parentage were

raised to the posit ion of a

Brahmin or a Kshatriya, in virtue

of their superior learning or

valour; but it remains to be seen

how the prostitute, maidservant,

fisherman, or the charioteer class

was benefited by these upliftings.

Again, on the other hand, the

fallen from the Brahmin, the

Kshatriya, or the Vaishya class

were always brought down to fill

12the ranks of the Shudras.

I t sh o u l d b e r e m e m b e r e d h e r e t h a t

Dr.Ambedkar rejected the conversion to

Christianity for two important reasons one

was that it was an alien religion ('Converting

to Buddhism is like changing rooms in the

same house but converting to Christianity is

like going over to another house.') and another

was that it would only provide solution for the13

individual but not to the entire community.And the real mischief that Sharma indulges

here i s when he s ta tes what Swami

Vivekananda wanted was that 'the lower

castes had to aspire, en masse, to rise to the

level ofa higher caste'. On the contrary what

Swami Vivekananda wanted was that the

suppressed castes Shudras and Dalits-

should arise as a class to take on the

intellectual and spiritual leadership of the

society.

Even here far from arrogating to those who

called themselves Brahmins the right to

recognize other communities as Brahmins,

which would have been the case had an

individual Shudra or a Dalit wanted to claim

Brahminhood, Swami Vivekananda proposed

a solution that was altogether radical and



13/39

would have made the very foundation of

socially stagnant caste system crumble if

materialized into practice:

Let us suppose that there are

castes here with ten thousand

people in each. If these put theirheads together and say, we will

call ourselves Brahmins, nothing14can stop them.

Taking all these together the context becomes

very clear that when Swami Vivekananda

spoke of entire communities acquiring

Brahminhood rather than the individual that

would administer effective death knell to the

socially stagnant caste system. Further Swami

Vivekananda identified himself with the

Shudra and the Dalit in the face of the attacks

of orthodoxy on him.

Thus at every point in the excerpt provided,

the maligning campaign of Jyotirmaya Sharma

actively abetted by Outlookmagazine falls to

the ground on empirical examination.

So what is the game plan in maligning Swami

Vivekananda?

But what is more important is the uncivilized

and untruthful campaign of hatred unleashed

on one of the founding fathers of Modern

India. It was Swami Vivekananda's unique

interpretation of Upanishadic teachings that

paved the way for a great unleashing of the

forces of national liberation and social

emancipation. It is not an accident that

Dr.Ambedkar emphatically traces the spiritual

roots of social democracy to the monism of

Upanishads whose unrealized potential for

social liberation Swami Vivekananda was the

first to realize and announce. Dr.Ambedkar

says:

Democracy demands that each

individual shall have every

opportunity for realizing its

worth. It also requires that each

individual shall know that he is as

good as everybody else. Those

who sneer at Aham Brahmasmi (I

am Brahma) as an impudent

Utterance forget the other part of

theMaha Vakya namely Tatvamasi

(Thou art also Brahma). If Aham

Brahmasmi has stood alone

without the conjunct of Tatvamasi

it may have been possible to sneer

at it. But with the conjunct of

Tatvamasi the charge of selfish

arrogance cannot stand against

Brahmaism. this theory of

B r a h m a h a s c e r t a i n so c i a limplicat ions which have a

t r e m e n d o u s v a l u e a s a

foundation for Democracy. If all

persons are parts of Brahma then

all are equal and all must enjoy

the same liberty which is what

Democracy means. Looked at

from this point of view Brahma

may be unknowable. But therecannot be slightest doubt that no

doctrine could furnish a stronger

foundation for Democracy than

the doctrine of Brahma. To

support Democracy because we

are all children of God is a very

weak foundation for Democracy

to rest on. That is why Democracy

is so shaky wherever it made to

rest on such a foundation. But torecognize and realize that you

and I are parts of the same cosmic

principle leaves room for no other

theory of associated life except

democracy. It does not merely

preach Democracy. It makes

democracy an obligation of one

and all.



14/39

When charging Hindus that they never

realized the potential of this concept of

Brahman for social democracy both Swami

Vivekananda and Dr.Ambedkar condemn

Hinduism for this gross neglect almost in the

same language and tenor. Dr.Ambedkar

continues:

we have on the one hand the

most democratic principle of

Brahmaism and on the other hand

a society infested with castes,

subcastes, outcastes, primitive

tribes and criminal tribes. Can

there be a greater dilemma than15this?

One can almost hear the same voice In his letterthto Alasinga dated 20 March 1893, in which

Swami Vivekananda wrote:

No religion on earth preaches the

dignity of humanity in such a lofty

strain as Hinduism, and no

religion on earth treads upon the

necks of the poor and the low in

such a fashion as Hinduism.

religion is not in fault, but it is

the hypocrites, who invent all

sorts of engines of tyranny in the

s h a p e o f d o c t r i n e s o f 16Pramrthika and Vyvahrika.

David L Gosling, a Cambridge scholar and

author of the seminal work 'Religion and

Ecology in South East Asia' states that

Vivekananda's interpretation of karma-yoga

as the basis for this-worldly action which wascentral to his teaching paved the way for

17Gandhian ethics.

Swami Vivekananda himself would have

welcomed a merciless rational discussion of

his ideas and criticisms. However the

slandering of Swami Vivekananda that is

being indulged in by a section of English press,

known for its antipathy towards anything

Hindu, should be seen for what it is. It is not a

scholarly study or healthy criticism in the

spirit of free thinking and reason, nor in the

spirit of equality and fraternity but it is an

attack and hate propaganda against the

foundations that hold this nation together andwhich have helped much more constructively,

and much more holistically in empowering

the masses of India without endangering them

to totalitarian ideologies and predatory

expansionist exclusivist belief systems.

1.Swami Vivekananda, The Ideal of a Universal Religion,

Collected Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol-II, p.382Swami Vivekananda, The way to Realization 2.ofUniversal Religion, (Delivered in the Universalist

thChurch, Pasadena, California, 28 January 1900), CWSV,Vol-II, p.365, p.3763.Swami Vivekananda, A Plan of Work for India, CWSV,Vol-IV, p.3724.Swami Vivekananda, A Plan of Work for India, CWSV,Vol-VIII,p.1845. Swami Vivekananda, Epistles, CWSV, Vol VI, pp.208-96. Swami Vivekananda, Epistles, CWSV, Vol VI, pp,393-47. Swami Vivekananda, Questions and Answers, CWSV,Vol V, p. 3118. Swami Vivekananda, Aryans and Tamilians, CWSV,Vol IV, p 3019. Swami Vivekananda, Aryans and Tamilians, CWSV,Vol IV, p 29810. Swami Vivekananda, Aryans and Tamilians, CWSV,Vol IV, p 29911. Swami Vivekananda, Aryans and Tamilians, CWSV,Vol IV, p 30012. Swami Vivekananda, Modern India, CWSV, Vol IV, p46913. G.Aloysius, Swami Dharmateertha and his messagein context, Anamika Pub & Distributors, 2004, p.2014. Swami Vivekananda, The Future of India, CWSV, VolIII, p 294

15. Dr.Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, Riddles in Hinduism,p.21616. Swami Vivekananda, Epistles, CWSV, Vol V, p.1517. David L Gosling, Religion and Ecology in India andSouth East Asia, Routledge, 2001,p.39



15/39

Dr. Anirban Ganguly

St hw am i Vi v ek a na n da ' s 15 0 b i rt h

anniversary celebrations was launched

all over the country on 12th January.

Behind the grandeur and colour of every

commemorative celebration lies the deeper

truth of the significance of the personality or

the event. At times, amidst the clash of

cymbals, the sound of trumpets, marches and

speeches the essential symbolism of the

occasion or the personality gets submerged,

while it may not be the case on this occasion,

the event nevertheless offers an opportunity to

delve into the essence of Vivekananda's life

and action and to internalize its essentialsignificance and message. The essence of such

commemorations then must necessarily lie in

that collective internalization.

At a time when cynicism gains periodic

ascendancy and faith in the sublime receives

repeated jolts, it is instructive to see that

Vivekananda's mission, against great

prevailing odds, was that of'Man-making' it

was 'his own stern brief summary of the work

that was worth doing.' And in the span of a

short and action packed life he did just that,' laboriously, unf laggingly, day af ter

dayplaying the part of Guru, of father, even

of schoolmaster, by turns.'

In his renunciation as the 'archetype of the

Sannyasin' Vivekananda exuded a cardinal

difference from the norm. His renunciation

had a dynamic dimension to it. While he often

exclaimed, burning with renunciation, 'Let me

die a true Sannyasin as my Master did,' heseemed to have equally embodied the spirit of

the 'ideal householder' 'full of the yearning to

protect and save, eager to learn and teach the

use of materials, reaching out towards the

reorganization and re-ordering of life.' In his

dynamic Sannyasa Vivekananda displayed an

eagerness to 'see the practicability of modern

science developed among his own people'

with the 'object of giving [them] a new andmore direct habit of thought.' Such eagerness,

when communicated to some of the leading

men of action of the day did have the desired

catalyzing effect. Jamshedji Tata (1839-1904),

for example, recalled the Swami's suggestions

given to him while on a journey to the West

and, inspired, wrote back to him with a new

vision of scientific research in India, asking the

Vivekananda: Essence and Significance



16/39

'cyclonic-monk' to lead the movement:

I very much recall at this moment your views

on the growth of the ascetic spirit in India, and

the duty, not of destroying, but of diverting it

into useful channels.

I recall these ideas in connection with my

scheme of Research Institute of Science for

India, of which you have doubtless heard or

read. It seems to me that no better use can be

m a d e o f t h e a s c e t i c s p i r i t t h a n t h e

establishment of monasteries or residential

halls for men dominated by this spirit, where

they should live with ordinary decency, and

devote their lives to the cultivation of sciences

rd natural and humanistic (23 November,1898)

Living at a time 'when men were abandoning

the old' and unquestioningly turning their

minds away from their c ivi l isat ional

fundamentals, Vivekananda, while being

fearless of the new', continued to remain an

'ardent worshipper of the old.' For him, it was

the nation's 'own life, proper to her own

background' that would eventually act as thefountain of regeneration. 'India must find

herself in Asia, not in shoddy Europe'. She

would find life in her 'own lifenot in

imitation.' It was from 'her own proper past

and environment that she would draw

inspiration.' While it was true that the 'future

would not be like the past, yet it could be only

firmly established in a profound and living

reverence for that past.'Such a conviction led Vivekananda to

'persistently, pertinaciously' try and discover

'the essentials of national consciousness.' And

in this quest of his, no 'smallest anecdote, no

trifling detail of person or custom, ever came

amiss to his intellectual net', he was certain that

a 'still greater future' had to be 'built upon the

mighty past.' The meaning of his Sannyasa

then was to 'reassert that which was India's

essential self, and leave the great stream of the

national life, strong in a fresh self-confidence

and vigour, to find its own way to the ocean.'

Faith and invincibility were the other keynotesof his life. When the Indian intellect stood

subjugated, when her traditions stood

denigrated and a sense of weakness and

confusion overshadowed the national psyche,

here was a man 'who never dreamt of failure.

Here was a man who spoke of naught but

strength.' To many a close observer he seemed

'supremely free from sentimental i ty ,

supremely defiant of all authority' refusing to'meet any foreigner save as the master'. To an

'Englishman who knew him well' the Swami's

'great genius' lay 'in his dignity', it was

'nothing short of royal.' In an age when the

prevailing perception of India was that of a

perpetual receiver of Western enlightenment,

the Swami was firm in his conviction that 'the

East must come to the West, not as a

sycophant, not as a servant, but as Guru and

teacher.' His cry was always unsettling to

conformists of the age: 'We are under a

Hypnotism! We think we are weak and this

makes us weak! Let us think ourselves strong

and we are invincible.'

The central deity of his adoration and spiritual

identification, however, was India. To a

generation of the Indian intelligentsia who

grew up on and propounded the notion of an

externally inspired and evolving Indian unity,

V i v e k a n a n d a c a m e a s a m i g h t y

nonconformist. To him the 'idea that two paice

postage, cheap travel, and a common

language of affairs could create a national

unity, waschildish and superficial.' He

laughed at such facile explanations of Indian

unity and argued instead that 'these things



17/39

could only be made to serve old India's turn if

she already possessed a deep organic unity of

which they might conveniently become an

expression.' His stand came, not from a mental

assessment of that unity but rather from a

profoundly empirical experience of it. For'something like eight years' Vivekananda had

'wandered about the land changing his name

at every village, learning of every one he met,

gaining a vision' of the land that was at once

'accurate and minute as it was profound and

general.' It had enabled him to firmly grasp

and absorb the uniting dimensions of this vast

land.

But his perception of this unity was not merelymeant for articulation or verbal explication; he

lived and was an embodiment of this 'diversity

in oneness'. Through his intimate interactions

and ceaseless travels he had learnt, 'not only

the hopes and ideals of every sect and group of

the Indian people, but their memories also.' He

held the entire land, her traditions, her people,

their ways and their sense of the past, as it

were, in his soul, and radiated that national

unity, which the superficial eye of the curious

Orientalist or 'Anglicised native' failed to see:

A child of the Hindu quarter of Calcutta

returned to live by Ganges-side, one would

have supposed from his [Vivekananda's]

enthusiasm that he had been born, now in the

Punjab, again in the Himalayas, at a third

moment in Rajputana, or elsewhere. The songs

of Guru Nanak alternated with those of Mira

Bai and Tanasena on his lips. Stories of Prithvi

Raj and Delhi jostled against those of Chitore

and Pratap Singh, Shiva and Uma, Radha and

Krishna, Sita-Ram and Buddha. Each mighty

drama lived in a marvellous actuality, when he

was the player. His whole heart and soul was a

burning epic of the country, touched to an

overflow of mystic passion by her very name.

As an indefatigable defender of his land and

his people, Vivekananda was perhaps second

to none. Never did his zeal falter when it came

to defending and presenting India to the world

a t l a r g e . P o r t r a y e d o f t e n a s a n

uncompromising critic of a stagnant India, theSwami was equally one of her most ardent and

articulate worshippers and standard bearers.

When the national mind wallowed in a

tendency of habitually issuing cringing-

apologia, Vivekananda on the contrary firmly

felt that 'nothing Indian required apology.'

And if anything Indian seemed 'barbarous or

crude' to the 'pseudo-refinement of the alien',

he sprang to the defence and 'without

denying, without mimising anything his

c o l o s s a l e n e r g y w a s i m m e d i a t e l y

concentrated on the vindication of that

particular point, and the unfortunate critic

was tossed backwards and forwards on the

horns of his own argument.' On such occasions

there was 'no friend that he would not sacrifice

without mercyin the name of national

defence.' To Vivekananda, 'everything Indian

was absolutely and equally sacred', India forhim, as he once said, was the land to which

'must come all souls wending their way

Godward!'

He demanded such an adherence to India from

all those who came to him, especially the

Westerners, 'Remember' he told them, 'if you

love India at all, you must love her as she is, not

as you might wish her to become.' It was this

'firmness of his, standing like a rock for whatactually was, that did more than any other

single factto open the eyes' of a vast

multitude to 'the beauty and strength of that

ancient poem the common life of the

common Indian people.'

Singularly absent from Vivekananda's nature

was the denominational sense of exclusivity;



18/39

he was at ease among adherents and

practitioners of all faith. Being himself 'the

exponent of Hinduism' he would stretch out

whenever he found 'another Indian religionist

struggling with the difficulty of presenting his

case' and sitting down would write 'his speechfor him, making a better story for his friend's

faith than its own adherent could have done!'

Behind the denominational variation he

clearly perceived standing 'the great common

facts of one soil; one beautiful old routine

ancestral civilisation'

But what attracted most, all those who saw and

followed him closely was his ceaseless and

immediate responsiveness to everythingconcerning India, and his supreme faith and

confidence in the destiny of this land, 'no hope

but was spoken into his ear, - no woe but he

knew it, and strove to comfort or to rouse.' He

seemed to hold in his 'hands the thread of all

that was fundamental, organic, and vital'; he

seemed to know 'the secret springs of life' and

to understand 'with what word to touch the

heart of millions', and above all such

knowledge gave him a 'clear and certain hope'

when it came to India. He 'never dreamt of

failure for his peopleto him India was young

in all her parts', to him the 'country was young'

and the 'India of his dreams was in the future.'

He was firm in his conviction that despite all

passing appearances the 'great deeps' of India

and of her people would forever remain

'moral, austere and spiritual', it could not be

otherwise. And her ancient civilisation meantfor him, simply, the 'inbreeding of energy

through many a millennium.'

Like the religio-cultural, the socio-political too

s t r o n g l y a t t r a c t e d a n d i n t e r e s t e d

Vivekananda. In his expressions of concern for

India, this aspect often distinctly flowed out

through his talks, conversations and letters.

The mighty urge to see India liberated, self-

reliant and spiritually conscious and vibrant

continuously occupied his being and he

attempted to work this out not as a politician,

but as a 'nationalist.' He 'was no politician: he

was [rather] the greatest of nationalists' andtherefore to him the 'destiny of the people was

in their own soil, and the destiny of the soil

was no less in its own people.'

The essence and significance of Vivekananda

lay in that: an unwavering nationalist who

offered an epochal and liberating vision for his

land and his people.

Sources

Sister Nivedita, 'The National Significance of theSwami Vivekananda's Life and Work', in SelectedEssays of Sister Nivedita, (Madras & Ganesh & Co,

rd3 edition, 1911), pp.128-140.

Sister Nivedita, 'Swami Vivekananda as a Patriot'(New India, October 2, 1902), in The CompleteWorks of Sister Nivedita, vol.1, (Kolkata: Advaita

thAshrama, 5 imp. 2006), pp.378-380.

J a m s h e d j i T a t a l e t t e r a c c e s s e d a t :

http://apc.iisc.ernet.in/iisc_tata_vivek_kalam.htm


If the poor cannot come to

education, education must reach

them, at the plough, in the

factory, everywhere.


19/39

Compiled by Dr.K.M.Rao Ph.D.,

Sometimes people get frightened at idea,

and superstition is so strong that

thinking men even believe that they are

the outcome of nothing, and then, with the

grandest logic, try to deduce the theory that

although they have come out of zero, they will

be eternal after wards. Those that come out of

zero will certainly have to go back to zero.

Neither you, nor g nor any one present, has

come out of zero, nor will go back to zero. We

have been existing eternally, and will exist, and

there is no power under the sun or above the

sun which can undo your or my existence or

send us back to zero. Now this idea of

reincarnation is not only nota frightening idea,

but is most essential for the moral will-being of

the human race. It is the only logical conclusion

that thought full men can arrive at. It you are

going to exist in eternity hereafter, it must be

that you have existed through eternity in the

past: it cannot be otherwise. I will try to answera few objections that are generally brought

against the theory The first objection is, why

do we not remember our past? Do we

remember all our past in this life? How many of

you remember your early childhood, and if

upon memory depends your existence, then

this argument proves that you did not exist as

babies, because you do not remember your

babyhood. It is simply unmitigated nonsense tosay that our existence depends on our

remembering it why should we remember the

past. That brain is gone, broken into pieces, and

a new brain has been manufactured. What has

come to this brain is the resultant, the sum total

of the impressions acquired in our past, with

which the mind has come to inhabit the new

body.

I, as I stand here, am the effect, the result, of all

the infinite past which is tacked on to me. And

why is it necessary for me to remember all the

past? When a great ancient sage, seer or a

prophet of old, who came face to face with the

truth, says something, the modern men stand

up and say, Oh, he was a fool! But just use

another name, Huxley says it, or Tyndall;

Vivekananda on the Reincarnation

of the Soul(Part of the Series of Lectures Delivered in New York 26th Jan 1896)



20/39

then it must be true, and they take it for

granted. In place of ancient superstitions, they

have erected modern superstitions, in place of

the old popes of religion they have installed

modern popes of science. So we see that this

objection as to memory is not valid, and that is

about the only serious objection that is raised

against theory. Although we have seen that it is

not necessary for the theory that there shall be

the memory of past lives, yet at the same time

we are in a position to assert that there are

instances which show that this memory does

come, and that each one of us will get back this

memory in that life in which he will become

free. Then alone you will find that this world is

but a dream, then alone you will realize in thesoul of your soul that you are but actors and the

world is a stage; then alone will the idea of non-

attachment comes to you with the power of

thunder; then all this thirst for enjoyment, this

clinging on to life and this world will vanish

for ever; then the mind will see clearly as

daylight how many times all these existed for

you, how many times you had fathers and

mothers, sons and daughters, husbands andwives, relatives and friends, wealth and

power. They came and went. How many times

you were on the topmost crest of the wave, and

how many times you were down at the bottom

of despair. When memory will bring all these

to you, then alone you will stand as a hero and

smile when the world frowns upon you. Then

alone you stand up and say, I care not for thee

even, O Death; what terror has thou for me?

This will come to all.

Are there any arguments, any rational proofs

for this reincarnation of the soul? So far we

have been giving the negative side, showing

that the opposite arguments to disprove it are

not valid. Are there any positive proofs? There

are; and most valid ones, too. No other theory

except that of reincarnation accounts for the

wide divergence that we find between man

and man in their powers to acquire

knowledge. First, let us consider the process

by means of which knowledge is acquired.

Suppose I go into the street and see a dog. How

do I know it is a dog? I refer it to my mind, and

in my mind are groups of all- my past

experiences, arranged and pigeon-holed, as it

were. As soon as a new impression comes, I

take it up and refer it to some of the old pigeon-

holes, and as soon as I find a group of the same

impressions already existing, I place it in that

group, and I am satisfied. I know it is a dog,

because it coincides with the impressions

already there. When I do not find the cognates

of the new experience inside, I becomedissatisfied, this state of the mind is called

ignorance but, when, finding the cognates of

an impression already existing, we become

satisfied, this is called knowledge. When

one apple fell, man became dissatisfied. Then

gradually they found out the group. What was

the group they found? That all apples fell, so

they called it gravitation. Now we see that

without a fund of already existing experience,any new experience would be impossible, for

there would be nothing to which to refer the

new impression. So, if, as some of the

European philosophers think, a child came

into the world with what they call Tabula

Rasa such a child would never attain to any

degree of intellectual power, because he would

have nothing to which to refer his new

experiences. We see that the power of

acquiring knowledge varies in each individualand this shows that each one of us has come

with his own fund of knowledge. Knowledge

can only be got in one Way, the Way of

experience; there is no other way to know. If

we have not experienced it in this life, we must

have experienced it in other lives. How is it

that the fear of death is everywhere? A little

chicken is just out of an egg and an eagle comes



21/39

and the chicken flies in fear to its mother. There

is an old explanation (I should hardly dignify it

by such a name). it is called instinct. What

make that little chicken just out of the egg

afraid to die? How is it that as soon as a

duckling hatched by a hen comes near water, it

jumps into it and swims? It never swam before,

nor saw anything swim. People call it instinct.

It is a big word, but it leaves us where we were

before. Let us study the phenomenon of

instinct. A child begins to play on the piano. At

first she must pay attention to every key she is

fingering and as she goes on and on for months

and years, the playing becomes almost

involuntary, instinctive- what was first done

with conscious will does not require later on aneffort of the will. This is not yet a complete

proof. One half remains, and that is that almost

all the actions which are now instinctive can be

brought under the control of will. Each muscle

of the body can be brought under control. This

is perfectly well known. So the proof is

complete by this double method, that what we

now call instinct is degeneration of voluntary

actions; therefore, if the analogy applies to thewhole of creation, if all nature is uniform, then

what is instinct in lower animals, as well as in

men, must be the degeneration of will.

Applying the law we dwelt upon under

macrocosm, that each involution presupposes

an evolution, and each evolution an

involution, we see that instinct is involved

reason. What we call instinct in men or animals

must therefore be involved, degenerated,

voluntary actions, and voluntary actions are

impossible without experience. Experience

started that knowledge, and that knowledge is

there. The fear of death, the duckling taking to

the water and all involuntary actions in the

human being which have become instinctive,

are the results of past experiences. So far we

have proceeded very clearly and so far the

latest science is with us. But here comes one

more difficulty. The latest scientific men are

coming back to the ancient sages, and far as

they have done so, there is perfect agreement.

They admit that each man and each animal is

born with a fund of experience, and that all

these actions in the mind are the result of past

experience. But what they ask, is the use of

saying that that experience belongs to the

soul? Why not say it belongs to the body, and

the body alone? Why not say it is hereditary

transmission? This is the last question. Why

not say that all the experience with which I am

born is the resultant effect of all the past

experience of my ancestors? The sum total of

the experience from the little protoplasm up tothe highest human being is in me, but it has

come from body to body in the course of

hereditary transmission. Where will the

difficult be? This Question is very nice, and we

a d m i t so m e p a r t o f t h i s h e r e d i t a r y

transmission. How far? As far as furnishing

the material. We, by our past actions, conform

ourselves to a certain birth in a certain body,

and the only suitable material for that bodycomes from the parents who have made

themselves fit to have that soul as their

offspring.

The simple hereditary theory takes for granted

the most astonishing proposition without any

proof, that mental experience can be recorded

in matters, that mental experience can be

involved in matter. When I look at you, in the

lake of my mind there is a wave. That wave

subsides, but remains in fine form, as an

impression. We understand a physical

impression remaining in the body. But what

proof is there for assuming that the mental

impression can remain in the body, since the

body goes to pieces? What carries it? Even

granting it were possible for each mental

impression to remain in the body, that every



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impression, beginning from the first man

down to my father, was in my father's body,

how could it be transmitted to me? Through

the bio plasmic cell ? How could that be?

Because the father's body does not come to

the child in toto. The same parents may have

a number of children; then, from this theory of

hereditary transmission, where the impression

and the impressed (that is to say, material) are

one, it rigorously follows that by the birth of

every child the parents must lose a part of their

own impressions, or if the parents should

transmit the whole of their impressions, then,

after the birth of the first child, their minds

would be a vacuum.

Again, if in the bio plasmic cell the infinite

amount of impressions from all time has

entered, where and how is it? This is a most

impossib le posi t ion , and unt i l these

physiologists can prove how and where those

impressions live in that cell, and what they

mean by a mental impression sleeping in the

physical cell, their position cannot taken for

granted. So far it is clear then, that this

impression is in the mind, that the mind comesto toke its birth and rebirth, and uses the

material which is most proper for it, and that

the mind which has made itself fit for only a

particular kind of body will have to wait until it

gets that material. This we understand. The

theory then comes to this, that there is

hereditary transmission so far as furnishing

the material to the soul is concerned. But the

soul migrates and manufactures body after

body and each thought we think, and each

deed we do, is stored in it in fine forms, ready

to spring up again and take a new shape. When

I look at you a wave rises in my mind. It dive

down, as it were, and becomes finer and finer,

but it does not die. It is ready to start up again

as a wave in the shape of memory. So all these

impressions are in my mind, and when I die the

resultant force of them will be upon me. A ball

is here, and each one of us takes a mallet in his

hands and strikes the ball from all sides; the

ball goes from point to point in the room, and

when it reaches the door it flies out. What does

it carry out with it? The resultant of all these

blows. That will give it its direction. So what

directs the soul when the body dies? The

resultant, the sum total of all the works it has

done, of the thoughts it has thought. If the

resultant is such that it has to manufacture a

new body for further experience, it will go to

those parents who are ready to supply it with

suitable material for that body. Thus from

body to body it will go, sometimes to a heaven,

and back again to earth, becoming man, orsome lower animal. This way it will go on until

it has finished its experience, and completed

the cycle. It then knows its own nature, knows

what it is, and ignorance vanishes, its powers

become manifest, it becomes perfect; no more

is there any necessity for the soul to work

through physical bodies, nor is there any

necessity for it to work through finer, or

mental bodies. It shines in its own light, and isfree, no more to be born, no more to die

We will not go now into the particulars of this.

But I will bring before you one more point with

regard to this theory of reincarnation. It is the

theory that advances the freedom of the

human soul. It is the one theory that does not

lay the blame of all our weakness upon

somebody else, which is a common human

fallacy. We do not look at our own faults; the

eyes do not see themselves, they seethe eyes of

everybody else. We human beings are very

slow to recognize our own weakness, our own

faults, so long as we can lay the blame upon

somebody else. Men in general lay all the

blame of life on their fellow- men, or, failing

that, on God, or they conjure up a ghost, and

say it is fate. Where is fate, and who is fate? We



23/39

reap what we sow. We are the makers of our

own fate. None else has the blame, none else

has the praise. The wind is blowing; those

vessels whose sails are unfurled catch it, and

go forward on their way, but those which have

their sails furled do not catch the wind. Is that

the fault of the wind? Is it the fault of the

merciful father, whose wind of mercy is

blowing without ceasing, day and night whose

mercy knows no decay, is it His fault that some

of us are happy and some unhappy? We make

our own destiny. His sun shines for the weak as

well as for the strong. His wind blows for the

saint and sinner alike. He is the lord of all, the

father of all, merciful, and impartial. Do you

mean to say that He, the lord of creation, looksupon the petty things of our life in the same

light as we do? What a degenerate idea of God

that would be! We are like little puppies,

making life and death struggles here, and

foolishly thinking that even God Himself will

take as seriously as we do. He knows what the

puppies' play means. Our attempts to lay the

blame on Him, making Him the punisher, and

the re warder, are only foolish. He neitherpunishes, nor rewards any. His infinite mercy

is upon every one, at all times, in all places,

under all conditions, unfailing, unswerving.

Upon us depends how we use it. Upon us

depends how we utilize it. Blame neither man,

nor God, nor any one in the world. When you

find your selves suffering, blame your selves,

and try to do better.

This is the only solution of the problem. Those

that blame others are generally miserable

with helpless brains; they have brought them

selves to that pass through their own mistakesand blame others, but way. This attempt to

throw the blame up on others only weakens

them the more. Therefore blame none for your

own faults, stand upon your own feat, and

take the whole responsibility upon your

selves. Say, This misery that I am suffering is

my own doing and that very thing proves that

it will have to be undone by me alone. That

which I created I can demolish; that which

created by some one else I shall never be able to

destroy. There fore stand up, be bold, be

strong. Take the whole responsibility on your

own shoulders, and know that you are the

creator of your own destiny. All the strength

and succor you want is within your selves.

Therefore, make your future. Let the dead

past bury its dead. The infinite future is

before you, and you must always remember,

that each word, thought, and deed, lays up astore for you and that as the bad thoughts and

bad works are reads to spring upon you like

tigers, so also there is the inspiring hope that

the good thoughts and good deeds are reads

with the power of a hundred thousand angels

to defend you always and for ever.

F I F B C

Further details: E-mail: [email protected] / Fax: 04652-247177. Visit us at : www.vkendra.org

Q,Lm Name of Shibir Date Age group CampDonation

Rs

1 Spiritual Retreat (Eng & Hindi) 25 Feb - 03 Mar 18 to 70 1500/-

2 Yoga Shiksha Shibir (Eng & Hindi) 05 - 19 May 18 to 60 2000/-

3 Spiritual Retreat (Eng & Hindi) 08 - 14 Aug 18 to 70 1500/-

4 Yoga Shiksha Shibir (Eng & Hindi) 01- 15 Dec 18 to 60 2000/-



24/39

What is religion and how do we recognize atrue religious person?

The goal of religion is to get rid of nature'scontrol over us. Many times we justify ourweaknesses, shortcomings, saying, that is mynature and thus we refuse to raise ourselves, tomanifest the best in us, the divine in us. Eachsoul is potentially divine. The goal is to

manifest this Divinity within, by controllingnature, external and internal. Do this either bywork, or worship, or psychic control, orphilosophy -- by one or more or all of these --and be free. This is the whole of religion.Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, ortemples, or forms, are but secondary details.Sacrifices, genuflexions, mumblings, andmutterings are not religion. They are onlygood if they stimulate us to the brave

performance of beautiful and heroic deeds

and lift our thoughts to the divine perfection.

What good is it, if we acknowledge in ourprayers that God is the Father of us all and inour daily lives do not treat every man as ourbrother but call them heathen, pagan, kafir oruntochable? Books are only made so that theymay point the way to a higher life; but no goodresults unless the path is trodden withunflinching steps! Religion is not in believingbut being and becoming.

Every human personality may be compared toa glass globe. There is the same pure whitelight -- an emission of the divine Being -- in thecentre of each, but the glass being of differentcolours and thickness due to each one'saspirations, unfulfilled desires, the raysassume diverse aspects in the transmission.The equality and beauty of each central flameis the same, and the apparent inequality is only

in the imperfection of the temporal instrumentof its expression. As we rise higher and higherin the scale of being, the medium becomesmore and more translucent. The true religiousperson thus is heroic in deeds, persistent inefforts to raise oneself, compassionate inbehvaiour with others and transparent inactions.

Swami Vivekananda answers our questions-1(Words in Italics are by the compiler)

Compiled byNivedita Raghunath Bhide



25/39

Get rid of the Tartar

Krishna strikes another note as a teacher ofintense activity. Work, work, work day andnight, says the Gita. You may ask, "Then, whereis peace? If all through life I am to work like acart - horse and die in harness, what am I herefor?" Krishna says, "Yes, you will find peace.Flying from work is never the way to findpeace." Throw off your duties if you can, andgo to the top of a mountain; even there themind is going -- whirling, whirling, whirling.

Someone asked a Sannyasin, "Sir, have youfound a nice place? How many years haveyou been travelling in the Himalayas?""For forty years," replied the Sannyasin."There are so many beautiful spots to selectfrom, and to settle down in: why did younot do so?" "Because for these forty yearsmy mind would not allow me to do so." Weall say, "Let us find peace"; but the mindwill not allow us to do so.

You know the story of the man who caughta Tartar. A soldier was outside the town,and he cried out when he came near thebarracks, "I have caught a Tartar."A voice called out, "Bring him in.""He won't come in, sir.""Then you come in.""He won't let me come in, sir."So, in this mind of ours, we have "caught a

Tartar": neither can we tone it down, nor willit let us be toned down. We have all "caught

Tartars". We all say, be quiet, and peaceful,and so forth. But every baby can say that andthinks he can do it. However, that is verydifficult. The "Tartar" is what 'I have in myown mind', so we must not blame peopleoutside. "These circumstances are good, andthese are bad," so we say, while the "Tartar" ishere, within; if we can quiet him down, weshall be all right. Shirking our duties to ourpeople, if we try to find peace in pilgrimage,

Wisdom through stories told by

Swami Vivekananda-1

(Words in Italics are added by the compiler)Compiled By

Nivedita Raghunath Bhide



26/39

in so-called spiritual practices etc we cannotfind peace. The 'Tartar' - the desires andselfishness inside us would not let us find it.Get rid of 'Tartar'.

Therefore Krishna teaches us not to shirk our

duties, but to take them up manfully, and notthink of the result. The servant has no right toquestion. The soldier has no right to reason.Go forward, and do not pay too muchattention to the nature of the work you haveto do. Ask your mind if you are unselfish. Ifyou are, never mind anything, nothing canresist you! Plunge in! Do the duty at hand.And when you have done this, by degreesyou will realise the Truth: "Whosoever in the

midst of intense activity finds intense peace,whosoever in the midst of the greatest peacefinds the greatest activity, he is a Yogi, he is agreat soul, he has arrived at perfection." Ourduties means the work we are supposed todo- is our path to peace, path to God-

realization.

Now, you see that the result of this teaching isthat all the duties of the world are sanctified.There is no duty in this world which we haveany right to call menial: and each man's workis quite as good as that of the emperor on histhrone.



27/39

W

hile I was waiting for my train toKanyakumari at Jammu RailwayS t a t i o n , I s p o t t e d S h i v a

Swarupananda as usual surrounded byyoung boys and girls. I was missing him forquite a long time and was therefore eager toknow what was he upto this time.

He was being heard with rapt attention by thegroup of youth, as he was sharing his feelings:

Of late I was moving across different parts ofour country like Assam, Bengal, Orissa,Arunachal Pradesh and Jharkhand. I was also

trying to know the pulse of people inMaharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu,Karnataka, Gujarat, and Punjab and now Iam in Jammu and Kashmir for some time.

Youth were, as though, holding their breathwhile listening to him.

He continued, I find the scenario a bitalarming under the sheath of growth andprosperity. While a section of society is busyconsolidating the gains in financial front,quite a few are suffering and thereforesimmering with discontent. While a few areplanning and investing for wealthy future,some are busy with nurturing the descent to

make gaping holes in the fabric of thesociety. One thing being common that ourNational consciousness is waning.Consistant efforts are on to search for weaklinks in the socio-cultural structure and usethem for disintegrating the nation. Onestudent abruptly asked Definitely you maynot be the only person to notice this. If a

peripheral observation is so revealing, whatabout the findings of the law-enforcingagencies and the guardians of the constitutionof the country?

You are right, they also could not have missedthis, assured Shiva Swarupananda andcontinued, Bosses in the corridors of powerare supposed to act on the Intelligence's inputsand Vigilance's findings. They do it, but onlyto the extent to ensure that they themselvesescape unhurt. Please recall how the people inpower took care of themselves by cancelling

To the Awakening Bharat

Satish Shamrao Chowkulkar



28/39

their pre-planned visits to Pune by acting onthe Intelligence's inputs of the serial Bomb-blasts in July 2012. And yet the concernedculprits are untraceable. Sometimes theactivities of the disgruntled elements arenurtured by the people in the corridors of

power to create trouble in the states ruled byrival political parties. Not only that, suchgroups are encouraged by the ring-leaderswithin the same political party to causeembarrassment to bosses in the party.Sometimes these powerful people talk of'coalition compulsions' a word coined toensure their chairs are steady. On quite a fewoccasions Intelligence's and vigilance's inputsare kept under the carpet to use them at an'opportune time'. More than often the people

in power-game consciously 'do not act' or 'actotherwise' to maintain and project their'Secular Identity', Whatever may happen tothe nation or society in the long run, theirimmediate agenda is to ensure that the 'SecularImage' is in-tact.

An intelligent looking girl asked what exactlyis the game-plan? What is its dynamics, canyou clarify? Shiva Swarupananda nodded andstarted explaining, The very possibility of

emergence of powerful and prosperous Bharatdisturbs international power-brokers. Theirdreams of neo-imperialism get shattered.They have octopus like tentacles. They do notmind to have unholy alliances with thec o u n t r i e s h a v i n g t h o u g h t - c u r r e n t sdiametrically opposite to theirs. The commoncause being Anti-India agenda. They are usingall the tactics to dis-integrate and weaken theBharat and its society. They do so by exploitingthe under-currents in the society like class-consciousness, caste-consciousness Linguisticparaties, religious fundamentalism, economicdisparities, personal ambitions of the leadersof the splinter groups, self-consciousintellengtia, neo-prosperous classes andpotential, ambicious but self-centered careerseekers. Shiva Swarupananda smiled andtook a pause to judge the effect by scanning thefaces of his listeners. Can you tell somespecific instances? quipped a youth who was

evidently a journalism student.

Yes! Sure! If you have time, I have theinclination said Shiva Swarupananda andcontinued.

In north-eastern part these agencies arefueling the separatist elements. Everyone isdreaming of Nation hood of their own. Somein the state of Nagaland are developing largerNaga Identity by carving out areas from theneighboring states. In the process theirdreamed 'Nagalim' will have a bigger reality.Bangladeshis are planning the expand theirboundaries by encroaching the Indian area byinfiltration. Their game plan is for snatchingareas from West Bengal, Assam, Bihar and

Jharkhand. Their fifth columnists are alreadyin action with the support of power hungrypoliticians. Red friends in Nepal are busy withthe support of their Indian counter parts todevelop a red corridor. They mis-guide andinvolve innocent Janajatis making capital oftheir problems.

So they are red-capitalists gripped a student.Yes, they come up to forests in Orissa, Andhraand Maharashtra. In the coastal region of

south pressure groups of missionaries and theso-called atheist are working together to fueldiscontent. Our Arunachal Pradesh is on thehigh agenda of China, who also has an eye onLadakh region of Jammu and Kashmir.Kashmiri separatist with regular 'tonic' fromPakistan have successfully presurrised ourgovernment to get engaged the secular cumleftist inter-locatory team. In the garb oflarger and effective autonomy' they areserving the cause of Kashmiri separatists.

Islamic fundamentalists-Jihadis are active inspreading panic in other parts of the country.The peace, which is needed for the trade andeconomical growth of the country, is theirtarget. Pan-Islamic Wahabis are consolidatingthe Muslim youth on fundamentalistprinciples. Besides, they have a soft-target-Hindu Youth-the boys and girls. They arelaying the honey trap to lure away young



29/39

generation of Hindu society. Their work ismade easy by the so-called secularists andatheists who destablise the Hindus (OnlyHindus) from their cultural values.

Are you referring to the much discussed Love

Jihad? asked a well-informed youth. Yes,you are right said Shiva Swarupananda andcontinued The phrases like freedom ofspeech, Individual freedom, right to expressetc. are advocated by these people only toattack Hindu's social structure and culturalvalues. On one hand anti Hindu elements areconsolidating and Hindu ethos is attackedconsistently to weaken it. It is clear to one andall that if India is to be destroyed, destablise theHindus socially and culturally. Because,

Hindu way of life is the back-bone of India.Agenda of advocates of free market andglobalization is aimed at changing the life styleof Hindus. Make India a nation of consumersand then we can consume India easily. This isthe slogan of MNCs.

Shiva Swarupananda continued All thesampradayas like Buddhist, Sikhs and Jainsassociated with Hindu way of Life have beenclassified legally as minorities, one by one.

Efforts are on by the enemies of the nation todevelop a gulf between these so calledminorities and the larger Hindu Identity.While at Srinagar, recently I heard a strangeslogan.

Jhataka Halal Bhai Bhai,Hindu Koum Kahanse Aayee.!

What does this mean? asked many youth

I will explain said Shiva Swarupananda

and continued Sikh leaders, right fromGuru Nanak to Guru Govind Singhadvocated and protected the Hindu Way ofLife from the onslaught of Islamic MughalRulers. Some of them became martyrs forthis cause. But today's fundamentalistMuslim youth are luring Sikh youth to getorganised with them against Hindus. In thisspecially coined sloganJhataka denotes typeof meat preferred by Sikhs, where a animal iskilled instantly and Halal denotes type of

meat insisted upon by Muslims where theanimal is killed by torturing.

The slogan thus seeks to unite Muslims andSikhs for Anti-Hindu agenda.

Some restless youth stood up and asked Dowe have any solution for these problem?How can we meet these challenges?

Shiva Swarupananda with his assuring

hand-gesture said Yes! We have to face thesechallenges, we only can solve this problem.Infact, this should be the agenda for you, themodern Indian Youth. We will discuss themodalities in detail.

Yoga Shiksha Shibir at Kashmir

Medium : Hindi Date : 15/07/2013 to 24/07/2013

Place : Vivekananda Kendra,Ramakrishana Mahasammelan Ashram, Nagdandi, Achabal,Anantnag,Kashmir- 192201 ( J&K) Camp Contribution : Rs. 3000/-

Any Physically and Mentally fit person in the age group of 18-60 years. The participant should be ableto perform various Yogasanas and exercises.

Enroll will be on first come first serve b

yuva bharati february 2013

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